Benjamin Britten: In Rehearsal and Performance with Peter Pears
VAI DVD 4277, $24.95

Britten: Nocturne for Tenor, 7 Obbligato Instruments & Strings, Op. 60 to texts by various English poets, with PETER PEARS, tenor, and the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) has recently been dubbed "The Greatest Musician of the Century" by the New York Times. This program, the first complete performance video available of the composer/conductor, provides a fascinating look at Britten’s skills as an interpreter of his own music. The video is especially valuable as a document of the legendary artistic collaboration between Britten and his longtime companion Peter Pears, the tenor for whom most of his vocal music was written. Produced by the CBC, Vancouver. (60 min., 1962, black & white)

Bonus segments on DVD version feature Britten in a 1968 interview for Canadian television, and Pears singing two Elizabethan songs with Julian Bream, lute. 1962, 74 minutes (including Bonus segments).

• I REHEARSAL (With commentary by Peter Pears) 32:20
  
• II PERFORMANCE 24:48
  
• BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913-1976)
  Nocturne for Tenor, 7 Obbligato Instruments & Strings, Op. 60
  (1958) to texts by various English poets (Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes)
   
• 1) Very slow and soft - On a poet’s lips I slept 3:02
    Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)  
  
• 2) Majestic - Below the thunders of the upper deep 2:49
   Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)  
  
• 3) Slow Waltz - Encinctured with a twine of leaves 2:55
   Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)  
  
• 4) As the Start - Midnight’s bell goes ting, ting, ting 2:12
   Thomas Middleton (c.1570-1627)  
  
• 5) Steady March - But that night / When on my bed I lay 3:03
   William Wordsworth (1770- 1850)  
  
• 6) Slow and Regular - She sleeps on soft, last breaths 3:13 
  Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) 
  
• 7) Quick - What is more gentle than a wind in summer? 3:32
   John Keats (1795-1821)  
  
• 8) Slow - When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see 3:55
   William Shakespeare (1564- 1616) Sonnet XLIII
  

Peter Pears, tenor
Benjamin Britten, conductor
CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra
CBC telecast of April 29, 1962